Global Change Abstracts The Swiss Contribution - SCNAT

204 Global Change Abstracts – The Swiss Contribution | General Topics
08.1-441
Occurrence, behavior and effects of nanoparticles
in the environment
Nowack B, Bucheli T D
Switzerland
Engineering
The increasing use of engineered nanoparticles
(NP) in industrial and household applications
will very likely lead to the release of such materials
into the environment. Assessing the risks of
these NP in the environment requires an understanding
of their mobility, reactivity, ecotoxicity
and persistency. This review presents an overview
of the classes of NP relevant to the environment
and summarizes their formation, emission, occurrence
and fate in the environment. The engineered
NP are thereby compared to natural products
such as soot and organic colloids. To date only
few quantitative analytical techniques for measuring
NP in natural systems are available, which results
in a serious lack of information about their
occurrence in the environment. Results from ecotoxicological
studies show that certain NP have
effects on organisms under environmental conditions,
though mostly at elevated concentrations.
The next step towards an assessment of the risks
of NP in the environment should therefore be to
estimate the exposure to the different NP. It is
also important to notice that most NP in technical
applications are functionalized and therefore
studies using pristine NP may not be relevant for
assessing the behavior of the NP actually used.
Environmental Pollution, 2007, V150, N1, NOV,
pp 5-22.
08.1-442
Life cycle assessment in the telecommunication
industry: A review
Scharnhorst W
Switzerland
Economics , Engineering
Background, Goal and Scope. Today, after the technologically
and commercially successful breakthrough
of electronic telecommunication facilities,
rapid and globally untrammelled information
exchange has become an indispensable service in
daily life. Associated with the tremendous growth
in electronic telecommunication hardware (GS-
MAssociation 2005), however, was and continues
to be an increasing awareness of the environmental
effects related to both the operation and the
production, as well as the End-of-Life (EoL) treatment
of such communication equipment. Environmental
concerns, for example, have resulted
in various governmental regulations such as the
WEEE- (CEC 2003b) and the RoHS-directives (CEC
2003a). To analyse, interpret and improve the environmental
performance of electronic telecommunication
equipment, life cycle assessment (LCA) is
increasingly recognised as one promising analytical
tool. Based on a thorough review of the scientific
work and by discussing industrial views, this
paper is intended to determine the key milestones
achieved, to analyse the current research situation
and to outline the key challenges concerning
LCA and electronic telecommunication industries.
Method. Starting with a brief reflection of
the LCA approach, the particularities in context
with telecommunication products’ are discussed.
Exemplary for various stakeholders participating
in the supply chain of telecommunication means
recent industry perspectives are also presented.
Results. In the core section of the proposed paper,
the pertinent scientific literature on LCA and electronic
telecommunication means is reviewed and
the most impressive achievements are documented.
Particular attention is dedicated to subcomponents
of individual electronic telecommunication
devices (e.g. Printed Wiring Board Assemblies
(PWBA) of mobile phones), components of mobile
communication networks (e.g. Base Transceiver
Stations (BTS)) and entire networks concentrating
on product comparisons, inventory approaches,
impact assessment method development, result
interpretations and presentation, and usability
of LCA in decision- making. Discussion. From the
reviewed scientific literature and industry views,
it was found that telecommunication products,
in general, represent complex objects requiring
a well thought-out performance of the LCA tool.
It has been shown that today there is a lack of
stakeholder involvement resulting in LCA studies
which only partly fulfil the expectations of
the contractors. In this spirit it was recognised, at
present, that most of the LCA studies on telecommunication
equipment result in bulky and stakeholder
unspecific compilations of findings impossible
to be used in rapid decision-making. This
aspect may explain why LCA so far is not or only
partly integrated into decision-making of globally
integrated industries, such as in telecommunication
industries. Conclusions. In summary, it can
be stated that LCA represents a promising alternative
to analyse, to interpret and essentially to adjust
the environmental performance of electronic
telecommunication products. The review showed
that there is a need to focus research efforts in
order to arrive at sound improvements of the
LCA methodology. Perspectives. The conclusions
from the presented review suggest concentrating
in particular on further development of the LCA
methodology with respect to efficiency, effectivity